Nigeria: Eko 2012 - Technical Hitches Loom

As contingents for the 18th National Sports Festival tagged Eko 2012, begin to pour into Lagos today, chaos is threatening to rule the day to day competition, as preparations that will guarantee technical efficiency are lagging behind.

The Games are scheduled to begin on Tuesday, but checks at the sporting federations revealed that the main organising committee made up of National Sports Commission officials is yet to work out vital technical details with regards to daily competitions. Also the programme of events has not been made available to those interested to see.

A visit to the website of Eko 2012, was not helpful. The events schedule page when opened simply stated "We are presently working on providing you with a detailed schedule of all events for the festival. Please, do check back on a later date for the schedules."

Also equipment for most of the sports have not been moved to Lagos at the time of filing this report. However, officials are expecting them to be moved in before the end of the day.

Secretary of the local organising committee, Dr. Kweku Tando acknowledged that there has been a shortfall in the preparations for the Games technically speaking.

"Lagos is ready to host the festival. We have everything in place, but we still need to cross the T's and dot the I's and hopefully we are expecting a hitch free festival."

But former Edo State commissioner for sports and a veteran of the National Sports Festival, Brown Ebewele is not amused by preparations by the hosts state. He submitted that the usual excitement that greeted previous festivals was lacking and that he will not be surprised to see chaotic organisation.

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